Wooden Arrows

As of Wednesday night, I started building wooden arrows for the first time in several times after realizing that wooden arrows for my traditional bows are a lot more fulfilling, even if the carbon arrows are a lot more consistent and easier to build. On Wednesday and early Thursday (no pictures, sorry), I straightened out the shafts, which is a very involved process that's more than worth the effort. Once I straightened the arrows, I decided to stain the arrows grey to give them a bit more character. Methyl ethyl ketone is a stinky solvent!!! The stain didn't get in uniformly, but it did get in well enough to give them a shadowy grey cast. Once I stained them (3 times by wiping the stain in with some rags) and letting them dry overnight, I decided to trim the arrows from 32" to 29" to get the spine to match my bow and points. Once I trimmed the arrows, I tapered the nock end so I could get some measurements for cresting (painting). Again, methyl ethyl ketone stinks!!! Oh, every time I reach a stinky step, I either went outside to do it (staining) or thanks to the rain, I opened up my windows (cresting).

Remaining steps:
-- Sealing the arrows with a polyurethane-like material (VERY stinky step that I have to do outside when it's dry)
-- Tapering the point end of the arrow
-- Final straightening
-- Glue nock (grey)
-- Add fletching (black and white color scheme this time)
-- Glue points (125 grain field points)
-- Go shooting!